Menu

Continental Breakfast

Leonardo DiCaprio: Climate change deniers ‘should not be allowed to hold public office’

The scientific consensus is in and the argument is now over,” DiCaprio said. “If you do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in facts or in science or empirical truths and, therefore, in my humble opinion, should not be allowed to hold public office.”

Students of color at Columbia University can apply to attend an upcoming racially segregated retreat hosted by the school that promises to embolden and empower participants, according to organizers.

The “Students of Color Leadership Retreat 2016” is open to students within the Columbia University undergraduate community, including its all-women’s Barnard College.

Slated for the weekend of Nov. 12 at Greenkill Retreat Center at the New York YMCA Camp, the event is billed as “an intensive weekend of personal development, empowerment and community building for student leaders at Barnard and Columbia who identify as African/African-American/Black, Latino/Hispanic, Asian/Asian-American, Pacific Islander, Arab and Middle-Eastern, Native & Indigenous, and Multiethnic/Multiracial,” according to the university’s website as well as the retreat’s online application form.

Canada: Immigration detention of children and families must end

Canadians have the opportunity to lead the world, as we have done with our welcome of Syrian refugees, by ending immigration detention of children and families and making sure our own policies do not exacerbate the suffering of those who, in many cases, have already suffered more than most of us can imagine.

Immigration detention is a deeply flawed tool for securing our borders. Evidence shows that community-based alternatives to detention are effective, more fiscally responsible, and far more humane. These alternatives will serve families as well as adults, who, as the IHRP’s 2015 report illustrated, are often caught in a “legal black hole” of indefinite and unnecessary detention.

People With Giant Carbon Footprints Warn There’s No More Time For People To Be Allowed To Have Opinions

President Barack Obama on Monday warned that Republicans in Congress who deny climate change contribute to a growing problem that he hoped to give more political urgency by emphasizing moral issues.

“Climate change is happening even faster than five years ago or 10 years ago,” Obama said. “What we’re seeing is the pessimistic end of what was possible, the ranges that had been discerned or anticipated by scientists, which means we’re really in a race against time. We can’t put up with climate denial or obstructionist politics for very long, if we want to leave for the next generation beautiful days like today.”

Despite his government’s well-earned reputation for consulting at length on the big issues, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has shown he won’t hesitate to act unilaterally once he’s made up his mind.

In May, for instance, faced with opposition MPs who were delaying a vote in the House of Commons, the prime minister barged his way into the gaggle to break them up, delivering an inadvertent elbow in the process.

This week, he moved just as abruptly to pre-empt stalled negotiations over a national price on carbon, giving the provinces until 2018 to come up with plans of their own, or his government would do it for them.

Now Trudeau faces another protracted battle with the provinces over health care, a topic that’s bedevilled, tormented and harried every one of his immediate predecessors in the third-floor corner office of Parliament’s Centre Block.

When the Cops Take Your Urine by Force

In the United States there is a wealth of case law pertaining to the Fourth Amendment, with the U.S. Supreme Court and the rest of the judiciary fashioning jurisprudence on what constitutes an unreasonable search or seizure. But the courts have yet to reach any kind of consensus about one particularly cringe-worthy practice, as exemplified by what happened to Jamie Lockard in a small town in southeast Indiana, close to the Ohio border.

Germany: Leftist Politicians ‘Made to Cry’ After Being Jeered by Far-Right Protesters

Hundreds of anti-immigration PEGIDA protesters showed unity Monday in demand Merkel “get out” and be ousted from her position as Chancellor. Other leftist politicians like Claudia Roth where called a “disgrace to the country” and told “your goal is the eradication of Germans!”

Most Americans Don’t Believe in ‘Scientific Consensus’ on Climate Change

According to the survey, only 27 percent of Americans agree that “almost all” climate scientists say that human behavior is mostly responsible for climate change, while 35 percent say that “more than half” of climate scientists agree on this. An additional 35 percent of those surveyed say that fewer than half (20%) or almost no (15%) climate scientists believe that human behavior is the main contributing factor in climate change.